The present invention began out of a need for a device to support toilets for bariatric patients; that is, patients of weight in excess of the weights of typical patients. A person having a body mass index of forty or greater (often more than one hundred pounds over their ideal body weight) may be considered morbidly obese and a suitable candidate for bariatric surgery. Such a person would be considered a bariatric patient. Standard toilets are designed to sustain high loadings, but under extreme weight may be subject to fracture.
There are various devices and methods available for providing support to toilet appliances or to the person utilizing them, but all are disadvantageous when compared to the present invention. Some devices are designed to provide strengthening of the attachment point of the toilet to the wall in order to assist in providing a toilet device that can withstand high weights; however, because such devices provide no support to the bowl itself, and due to the lever moment of the toilet bowl about the attachment point, excess weight applied to the bowl area can easily lead to failure of the wall mount. Other devices provide supports above the toilet bowl to facilitate grasping by the user, to assist the user in supporting himself without bringing full weight on to the toilet bowl. Clearly, such devices do not provide support to the toilet bowl, and in the event of failure, bring full weight of the user on to the toilet bowl, as these devices are mostly utilized to assist the user in positioning himself upon the bowl.
While some or all of the above-referenced patents may be utilized for supporting a patient above a toilet bowl, or for supporting a patient of average weight upon a toilet bowl, each fails to adequately provide reliable support to a heavily loaded toilet bowl.
Therefore, it is readily apparent that there is a need for a novel device and method for supporting a toilet bowl, wherein the maximum weight load capability of a toilet is increased, thus enabling secure support of obese individuals thereon and avoiding the above-discussed disadvantages.